The conventional movie production process involves passing media data (e.g., images and audio) between production facilities using portable physical media such as tape assets. Although physical systems based on tape assets have been around for a long time, the movement of tape assets between facilities is cumbersome and expensive. As a result, there have been some efforts in the movie industry towards building the equivalent systems in the electronic and digital domain. In other words, the movie industry is attempting to transition from physical media formats and paper trails of data to the exchange of non-physical media and related electronic data. However, the efforts have encountered a number of drawbacks. For example, while physical media is clearly defined by its physical form (e.g., Beta, DigiBeta, D1, D5), non-physical content has no easily identifiable form and is therefore less understood or recognized. Furthermore, the security of content becomes more critical as ownership of the content no longer implies direct possession or control of the content. Finally, an industry standard for packaging of related content does not exist. Due to the drawbacks, the transition from an exchange of physical assets to an exchange of electronic assets is feeding industry instability.
The present invention is directed towards overcoming these drawbacks.